Ranking Analysis: A look at the March 22nd polls for lacrosse

There wasn't a ton of movement in this week's polls, but one of the teams made a touch of history, and not exactly in a good way.

You see, Johns Hopkins dropped out of the Top 10 this week, settling in at No. 12 in both polls. At 4-3 on the season with losses to No. 3 Syracuse, No. 5 Princeton and No. 6 Hofstra, the Jays aren't exactly on rocky footing for the postseason or anything, but it bears mentioning (and a hat-tip to JHU SID Ernie Larossa for having this in his game notes) that out of the 363 weekly polls that have been recorded since the USILA started their rankings in March of 1973, this week is just the 13th week that the Blue Jays are outside of the Top 10.

The school will have to fall a bit further to risk falling out of the Top 20 (which they never have been), but with games against Virginia and North Carolina coming up, the road certainly doesn't get easier for the Homewood folk.

As far as the rest of things this week, it was fairly straightforward. Virginia, Carolina, Syracuse, Maryland, Princeton and Hofstra occupied the top spots once again, with Virginia clearly attaining 'No. 1 until they lose' status (Can't wait for April 10th against UNC at the Big City Classic… That'll be a doozie). Maryland and Princeton also flip-flopped spots after the Tigers fell to the Tar Heels.

Outside of that, things are once again a little hairy trying to determine who gets those spots from the teeming mass of seemingly interchangeable teams. Cornell, Georgetown, Duke and Lafayette hold the next four spots in both rankings (in that rank for the Media, but Duke-Lafayette-Cornell-Georgetown for the USILA) - and congrats to the Leopards on what I believe to be the first Top 10 ranking in school history after a win over Bucknell.

Brown got a nice upward push in both polls after beating Harvard this weekend, jumping to 13th (from 17th) with the Media and from 20th to 15th with the coaches - but the Ivy loss wasn't enough to dump the Crimson from the Top 20.

The bottom of the media rankings is where I had my biggest 'huh' moment in terms of figuring out the motivations: Navy sound up at No. 19 after not being ranked a week ago… But they had a loss during the week to Towson, which didn't get a single vote. I feel this was a case in which some folks give the Mids the benefit of the doubt after seeing the win over Holy Cross this weekend, but forgot about the midweek loss to their non-conference foe.

Long story short, I agree with Quint on one key factor this season: More than I can ever remember, the spots from about 7-25 are nearly interchangeable depending on whatever factor you want to apply to your ranking. All of those teams seem to have the talent and ability to make a run at some point, but all are equally capable of having an unexpected opponent get the drop on them. (E.G. - No. 17 Stony Brook losing at home to Denver).

Check back next week for IL's Midseason Report rankings analysis, where we look way back to the Face-Off and Preseason rankings and examine what teams did to get from there to where they happen to fall next week.

And feel free to blow it up in the comments. Rankings are never an exact science - Where do you slot your Top 20?